Page 1105 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 28 March 2017
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The Coral Sea region in northern Australia has experienced large increases in temperature in the last 100 years. Last year, in 2016, the Great Barrier Reef experienced the worst bleaching event on record. At the end of March 2016, 93 per cent of the reef had experienced bleaching. At this time scientists, the community and other high profile figures such as Sir David Attenborough made urgent calls for action to save the reef. David Attenborough in fact made a documentary showing the tragic bleaching of the reef in detail.
The 2016 event was the third major bleaching to affect the Great Barrier Reef, following heatwaves over the past two decades. Coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef has halved over the last 27 years. A recent study in the journal Nature, which looked at the 2016 bleaching event, said that the chances of the northern Great Barrier Reef returning to its pre-bleaching assemblage structure are slim, given the scale of damage and, it said, the likelihood of a fourth bleaching event occurring sometime in the next decade or two as global temperatures continue to rise. Tragically that fourth bleaching event is occurring already, right now, just one year after the last bleaching event.
The scientists who came to the reef with us were extremely concerned about it. They said it is a terrible outcome to have two bleaching events in a row as the coral will not even have a chance to recover to health and the damaging impacts are amplified. The Great Barrier Marine Park Authority is currently conducting aerial surveys of the reef and attempting to determine the extent and severity of the bleaching. The indications are, however, that it is severe.
March 2016 had the warmest temperature on record. The early months of 2017 have also proven to be extremely hot and, in fact, south-eastern Queensland experienced record heat in February. This does not bode well for the health of the reef.
The study in Nature made it clear that the damage to the reef is caused by human-induced global warming. That science is very clear. Certainly the scientists who accompanied me to the reef were also very clear that global warming is the primary culprit for the destruction we are seeing on the reef.
Pollution is also causing damage to the reef but in terms of the widespread bleaching it plays a minimal role. The Nature study actually says:
Water quality and fishing pressure had minimal effect on the unprecedented bleaching in 2016.
It is global warming that is the main culprit.
I also had the opportunity to speak to tourist operators working at the reef. There is no doubt that damage to the reef, and its possible death at the hands of global warming, will be devastating for tourism, for investment and for the local and national economies.
Tourism in Cairns makes a vital contribution to the region and indeed the whole country. Close to 2.5 million visitors travel to the region per year and contribute
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